How to Pick Country Music Singer Biographies

Country music greats come along only once in a while, and more often than not they began their lives in a humble fashion. Whether you count yourself a country music fan or not, icons are icons, and these demand respect along with their struggles and their lives. Expect a bumpy but heart-felt ride with the man in black as well as the coal miner's daughter and others.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

1. Read "Man Called Cash" by John Carter Cash for a wild but clear-eyed look at this man's father and his marriage to June Carter Cash--who had her own drug issues toward the end of her life. Even through a son's eyes, maybe especially through a son's eyes, Cash and his rocketing, often dangerously lived life shines through with all of its heartache and joy.

2. Settle down with "Coal Miner's Daughter," about Loretta Lynn and her Kentucky roots. The huge discrepancy between her poor upbringing, tough long marriage (she was married at 13) and eventual fame and fortune will keep those pages turning. Lynn's plain honesty makes itself apparent as she writes about her own life. "Still Woman Enough" continues that story.

3. Bring Merle Haggard's Bakersfield childhood and difficult years to life with his accounts "Sing Me Back Home" and "Merle Haggard's House of Memories: For the Record." These are similar, the second written with Tom Carter. The dramatic narration from a man who seems to have seen it all flows as the reader is taken back to those delinquent and often crazy, jail-riddled times. A great singer lets us in on some of the emotion and action behind the songs.

4. Dip into "Hank Williams: The Biography" by Colin Escott or "Sing a Sad Song" by Roger Williams for details from what many consider country music's finest: the life of Hank Williams. His 29 years of hard living and charmed singing make for occasionally sentimental reading (depending on the author), but do give the reader more respect for this legend.